Legacy awards allow the holders of previous public engagement awards to apply for funding to continue their programmes, and evolve those programmes based on learning and evaluation.
As part of this Legacy award, we expect you to:
- deliver high quality public engagement activities during the lifetime of the award
- raise the profile and standards of public engagement within your host organisation or professional community, including sharing best practice and developing new talent
- champion STFC science and technology, including the impact of science and technology on society
- regularly interact with STFC’s public engagement and communication teams, including participation in STFC networks, events and advisory structures when requested
- work with partners to secure the future of your engagement programme
Continuing a previous project
To be awarded a Legacy award, you will have to demonstrate the success of your original engagement programme, and evidence that success via good-quality evaluation.
Legacy awards may be used for the continuation of your previous public engagement award.
To be eligible, the original grant upon which the Legacy award is building must have ended less than 36 months before the current Legacy award funding opportunity closing date.
As Legacy award applications are based upon previously successful proposals, they are required to be high quality and will be reviewed using strict quality criteria. This is regardless of the grant scheme that the original award was funded by.
The Legacy award programme of work proposed should be clearly linked to the original grant. Any evolution or changes to the activities in the original project must be justified using the learning and evaluation from the original grant.
Proposing new activities
Although not compulsory, you may wish to propose new activities that are considered necessary to strengthen the engagement practice, community networks or training opportunities initiated in the original grant.
Applications that include new or expanded activities must include evidence that these are well considered, planned and justified in the context of the proposal. Applications that do not include new activities, such as those with a specific focus on an area of work from the original award, are equally valid.
What we will support
We will support up to 2 Legacy awards from a single original grant which can be held sequentially, but not concurrently.
Unlike other public engagement awards, it is a requirement for Legacy award applications that project partners will support the delivery of the project. You must be able to demonstrate how both parties will make the proposed programme a success in the proposal.
STFC will only provide a proportion of the total cost of the Legacy award. The remaining support must be secured via cash or in-kind contributions from project partners.
Proposed engagement programmes
Proposed engagement programmes must clearly align to the:
- remit of the STFC science programme
- science, technology and engineering work of STFC’s national and international laboratories and facilities
The STFC science programme remit includes:
- astronomy, solar and planetary science
- particle physics and particle astrophysics
- cosmology
- nuclear physics
- accelerator science
Legacy awards will not be awarded unless there is a strong and demonstrable link between the proposed activities and STFC science, technology and engineering.
Developing networks or capacity building
Legacy awards may also be used for a continuation of activities that are dedicated to developing community networks or capacity building in public engagement.
This may be the sole purpose of a Legacy award or an application may combine engagement activities and networking into a coherent package.
What we consider as a continuing programme
Legacy awards allow our most demonstrably successful engagement programmes to continue and to evolve. However, when is an engagement programme considered ‘a continuation’ of previous work, and when is it considered ‘new’ by STFC?
For general guidance, STFC consider a programme to be a continuation of a previous award if:
- the aims and objectives of the new programme closely match those of the previous award
- the programme of work and the methodology is clearly linked to the previous award
- the characteristics of the target audience are similar to those of the previous award
If in doubt, you are strongly advised to contact the public engagement team to discuss your Legacy award application.
Support STFC’s public engagement strategy
Applicants should use their proposal to clearly explain how their Legacy award will further the aims of the STFC public engagement strategy.
STFC public engagement strategy
Social, ethical and economic benefits
Applications that highlight the social, ethical, and economic benefits of research are welcomed.
Evaluation plans
We focus heavily on evaluation. You must provide a clear evaluation plan showing details of how the outputs, outcomes and impacts of the Legacy award will be captured and evaluated.
We require applicants to report on the outcomes of their Legacy award in line with the STFC public engagement evaluation framework, which describes their approach towards effective engagement.
We suggest that you should familiarise yourself with the STFC public engagement evaluation framework and consider how the framework could be used to evaluate your engagement programme.
STFC public engagement evaluation framework
Legacy awards and STFC’s Wonder Initiative
The Wonder Initiative is about giving under-served communities an equal voice by listening, understanding, and responding to what people want to know about science and technology.
Wonder marks a long-term commitment by STFC public engagement to move our focus towards audience-driven public engagement with under-served communities in the most socio-economically deprived areas of the UK.
Financial support through Legacy awards is an important part of the Wonder Initiative.
The target audience for Wonder is defined according to indices of multiple deprivation. Specifically, STFC is interested in supporting audience-driven engagement that works with audiences, particularly those 8 to 14 years old and their families and carers, from the 40% most socio-economically deprived areas of the UK.
STFC defines the 40% most socio-economically deprived areas of the UK as those areas listed in the bottom 2 quintiles of the indices of multiple deprivation for the respective part of the UK.
Applicants are explicitly invited to submit Legacy awards that work with the Wonder target audience.
We encourage applications that propose engagement with audiences considered to have low ‘science capital’.
Applicants may choose which audiences to engage with and the methods of engagement. These must be outlined in the proposal.
Funding available
Legacy awards come under the full economic costs framework. The maximum value that may be sought for a Legacy award varies according to whether you are applying for your first or second Legacy award related to an original grant.
The Legacy award scheme mandates significant support from project partners. The maximum level of funding that we will provide differs according to whether this is your first or second Legacy award application:
- first award: up to 50% funding of the total project cost (up to a maximum of £50,000 payable by STFC)
- second award: up to 25% funding of the total project cost (up to a maximum of £25,000 payable by STFC)
You are required to have secured the remaining project funding from internal sources, project partners or both in advance of submitting the application to STFC. This support can be cash or in-kind. This support must be detailed in the corresponding letters of support.
Funding requirements
The following details the differing Legacy award funding requirements for full economic cost and non-full economic cost organisations. In this example, the maximum funding value is assumed, but you can request lower overall award values.
First Legacy award funding requirements for full economic cost organisations:
- total value of award: £112,500
- maximum STFC funding available: £62,500
- of which the maximum payable by STFC: £50,000
- minimum required project partner support: £50,000
Second Legacy award funding requirements for full economic cost organisations:
- total value of award: £106,250
- maximum STFC funding available: £31,250
- of which the maximum payable by STFC: £25,000
- minimum required project partner support: £75,000
First Legacy award funding requirements for non-full economic cost organisations:
- total value of award: £100,000
- maximum STFC funding available: £50,000
- of which the maximum payable by STFC: £50,000
- minimum required project partner support: £50,000
Second Legacy award funding requirements for non-full economic cost organisations:
- total value of award: £100,000
- maximum STFC funding available: £25,000
- of which the maximum payable by STFC: £25,000
- minimum support required from internal sources or project partners: £75,000
Cost headings
All costs that contribute to the full economic cost of the proposal should be included under the cost headings.
As the Legacy award scheme has no capital budget, you cannot request funds under the ‘equipment’ heading.
Use of funds
Other than restrictions around equipment, there are no set restrictions on the type of costs that may be applied for, for example:
- contributions to salaries (where a named individual will undertake work that would not be considered part of their normal duties)
- cost of materials
- travel and subsistence
What we do not fund
We will not fund:
- the continuation of a programme that ended over 36 months before the current Legacy award funding opportunity closure date
- applicants that have not secured the required minimum level of project partner support
- applicants applying for their third Legacy award
- projects where the target audiences are not primarily UK residents
- fees or honoraria to people already in paid employment to visit or give talks at schools, societies and so on, where such activities would reasonably be undertaken as part of their normal duties
- costs for hardware or equipment over the individual value of £10,000
- infrastructure funding or costs for building construction and maintenance
- projects where it is clear that the whole project would go ahead irrespective of STFC support
- retrospective funding, including those projects with a start date after the closing date but before the funding decisions are announced
- contingency funds
Awards will not be funded for the sole purpose of authorship and publication of books and novels.
If you are applying from or for schools, please note the following ineligible costs:
- programmes of formal education
- school trips to CERN and trips to other laboratories, observatories and science venues, unless they are intrinsic to a wider public engagement project
Legacy awards for new digital content
At the time of opening we recognise that there remain potential issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic that could make traditional engagement modes more challenging than they have been in for previous Legacy awards funding opportunities.
For this opportunity we are continuing to be receptive to applications that consider the appropriateness of remote and virtual methodologies for enabling effective two-way engagement as a potential focal area for their work.
We are also continuing to be less stringent regarding the previous restriction whereby we would only consider funding digital content (for example websites, videos) as an intrinsic part of a wider engagement programme.
Where applications are focused on face-to-face delivery, applicants are encouraged to actively consider mitigation and contingency planning should the intended activity delivery not be possible due to potential residual issues related to COVID-19.
Any application for digital content needs to include:
- a demonstration of the ‘evidence of need’ for any proposed content, and gaps in current provision of such material
- evidence that the target audience for any content will be involved in the design and production of such content
- a plan to facilitate audience participation and two-way engagement
- a plan (and budget) for keeping the content sustainable in the future
- information on licensing in order to promote sharing and reuse of the digital content
- acknowledgement of web accessibility rules and regulations
